2030
by Chrissy Calavicci
Summary: An AU fic.  Instead of waking up and joining the Avengers, Captain America is found and woken up in a postapocalyptic world by a band of freedom fighters.  What do you do when you wake up to find your country has been destroyed? T for lang and violence
1. Prologue

**A/N: This is a very experimental AU fic. Bear with me. I'm not giving everything away in this first little prologue here, so some parts MAY be confusing. The year is 2010 and most of the human race has been wiped out, including most of our heroes. As for why this is in the Captain America category? It IS a Cap fic, he just hasn't come into play yet. In this reality, he was only recently found. As I said, it's experimental, I have my beta helping me go over things, so some things could change...I'll let you know if I overwrite chapters. Anyway, hope you enjoy my little post-apocalyptic world here.**

_Twenty Years Ago_

_I was once told that when people look back on their childhood, they see fond memories and dear friends. When I look back on my childhood, I see a lifetime of fear. My family wasn't perfect, but it was wonderful. My parents never married, but both of them loved me dearly. I grew up in a world full of invasions and air raids. My father often told me that he thought that all ended with the Cold War._

_A few days before my tenth birthday, I woke to the sound of my father throwing open my bedroom door. He didn't give me time to say hello, only picked me up and brought me outside. My mother ran out behind him and the three of us got into a vehicle. Everything became clear as the sirens began to sound. A few moments later, we arrived at one of my father's offices, where I was rushed inside and brought downstairs into a bomb shelter._

"_Daddy," I whimpered, "What's going on?"_

"_It'll be alright darling," he kissed me on the forehead; "you and your mother will be safe here. When everything is okay, I'll come get you. I love you."_

"_I love you too daddy." I whispered as the doors shut._

_My mother turned on the television and we watched as news reporters followed superheroes into battle. Spiderman, Wolverine, and Iron Man all headed towards the turmoil. It seemed to be a full on invasion. Spiderman was the first to go. I watched as Wolverine battled alongside several other X-Men and the Fantastic Four. One by one, they fell. _

_Our own Army was no match for them. As they retreated, I only saw Wolverine and the Thing get up and follow._

_From the sky, fliers were plummeting to their death. Cameras went out as their crews were shot and others came in trying to pick up the slack. The last thing I saw was Iron man flying towards one of the jets. After that, the television became fuzzy and everything went dead._

_It may have been a few hours or it may have been a few days, I'll never know. The next thing I heard was someone bellowing "Stand back!" before they pummeled into the shelter doors._

"_Wolverine!" I shouted. I'd seen him on the news and I'd heard my father talk about him, but I never met him until that day. The look on his face was grim. He took my mother aside for a few minutes and they talked quietly. When she returned to me, there were tears in her eyes. My father had died. Nearly everyone had died. Human and super human alike. _

_The Thing came to us next and brought us to a large vehicle. I didn't question anything, nor did I try to make polite conversation. I did as I was told and my mother and I were taken to a refugee camp._

_It was a sad sight. When we arrived, there were only a few people there. Wolverine once again pulled my mother aside and I strained to listen. She came back to me and told me to stay put. She went out with a few others and later returned with more refugees. This happened over the course of the next few days. Very few children returned with them. Whenever there was a child, they were usually orphaned by the war. Wolverine would bring them over to me and he would tell me to keep them company. By the time they had finished searching the surrounding areas, there were four other children in the camp. The oldest was two years younger than me, the youngest five years younger than me._

_Growing up in a refugee camp forced me to mature quickly. As the oldest of the children, I took on a lot more responsibilities and by the time I was sixteen, I was out running missions with the other adults. _

_Time changes everything. My mother passed away shortly after my seventeenth birthday. Our refugee camp became a small town as we tried to rebuild from what little we had left. Soon, people began to have hope. Some even attempted re-population. It was met with almost failure, until Christa, Wolverine's oldest daughter was born. A few years later, her mother was pregnant again and it brought happiness back into the town. Shortly after, our town was threatened. Wolverine and the Thing went out to protect us and neither came back. Nikki was born prematurely and her mother died a few days later._

_The four children I grew up with then looked to me for answers. Though I wasn't the oldest in the town, I was the one who practically raised them. I was the one who assisted Wolverine on a constant basis. They wanted me to be their leader. The rest of the town either agreed, or no one else wanted to step up._

_The threats to our town became worse. By the time Nikki was two, we were running low on supplies and our ability to defend ourselves was weakening._

_I knew we had to move. Gathering as much as we could, we set out in search of shelter. Eventually, we ventured out further than I had ever been. Days went by and thankfully, we kept hidden from whoever was after us. It wasn't easy with a small town and two young children._

_Years went by and we never found a shelter quite like our original town. We moved from place to place, never staying anywhere for to long. New threats surfaced and through our travels we learned that there was a new power rising overseas. They seemed to have technology that we no longer possessed. Someone had finally seen an opportunity in all this. It was the perfect time for someone with power to take over the world and make it their own._


	2. Chapter One: Finding Steve Rogers

**A/N: Okay, now starts the NaNoWriMo portion of this. Some things MAY seemed rushed, but remember, I'm trying to pump out 50,000 words. Again, I'll let you know if something changes. Here, we are set in the year 2030. Our little band of freedom fighters are out and about doing some recon. Let's see where this leads them. (P.S. MY spellcheck and FFN's spellcheck disagree on the correct spelling of "blonde" what do you think?)**_  
_

_2030 Present Day_

"What do you think it is Cass?" Lee, a tall, blonde man looked at the building. It was mostly intact. The area around it was destroyed and the outer walls looked as if they had been scorched.

"S.H.I.E.L.D," Cass read slowly as she uncovered some of the letters, "I heard my father talking about this place."

"What is it?" Sun, a short Asian girl asked.

"It's some sort of organization," Cass explained, "I don't know much about it really, but maybe they have something in here we can use."

"It seems like it would make a sturdy shelter," Sun commented, "it could use some good old fashioned fixing up, but it could fit everyone."

"Let's check it out before we start picking out curtains," Lee stated, "Who knows? Maybe there are some more of those crazy robots in here. I'm sure you don't want to run into them again."

Cass rolled her eyes, "do you have to remind me? Thank god they ran into us and not the entire town."

"Come on," Sun stammered impatiently, "Let's check this place out so we can see if there's anything in here worth saving."

The trio cautiously entered the building. Debris littered the entryway, but most of the equipment inside seemed useful. Dust was everywhere, but other than that, things looked as if they had been placed there only a few hours before.

"Be careful," Cass warned as she looked around, "It looks like this is nothing more than a lab, but we have no idea what else is in this building."

They left the room and made their way down the hall, seeing nothing but shut doors. One door seemed to be slightly open, so Cass made her way inside. A trap door, that reminded her much of the bomb shelter she was in, was locked shut. "Open it." She demanded.

Lee looked around for something to break through the door. "That should do it," he stated proudly as he found a crowbar, "Time to break the lock."

Once the lock was broken, he opened the heavy door. Cass felt along the wall for a light switch. She wasn't expecting anything to happen, but figured she would give it a try. To her surprise, lights turned on.

Sun screamed, "There are decaying bodies in here!"

"Chill out!" Cass scolded, "Look over there!"

A large metal object that resembled a casket was alone in the corner. They walked over to it and peered through the glass cover. "Dear god," Lee whispered, "it's a man!"

"It looks like he's stuck in a block of ice." Sun frowned.

"Do you think he's still alive?" Lee laughed.

"Let's find out." Cass smiled.

"I was kidding." Lee rolled his eyes.

"I wasn't." His frown was met with a curious grin, "I think I know who this is."

"Who is it?" Sun asked.

"I think its Captain America. My dad talked about him a lot. When I was little, he told me stories about him. Right before he put me in the bomb shelter, I heard him on the phone. He said something about protecting Captain America."

"How did your dad know all this stuff?" Lee asked, "Was he the Hulk or something?"

"He was a business man," Cass frowned, "you know that." She fumbled around with some buttons and eventually, the glass cover lifted up revealing a block of ice. "Think there's anything here that'll help thaw him out?"

"I don't know if this is a good idea," Sun frowned. Lee and Cass gathered space heaters and put them around the casket. "What if he wakes up and kills us?"

"What if he doesn't wake up at all?" Lee asked, "How long has he been in this thing Cass?"

"Well, my dad said he died in the forties," Cass shrugged, "I'm assuming they found this recently." She thought, "Well, as recently as possible. This has probably been down in this bomb shelter since 2010. I guess no one came back for these people. They haven't been dead for twenty years, but it's been a few."

Lee turned the heaters up when he decided the ice wasn't melting fast enough. Sun watched the casket with fear in her eyes, "What if he kills us?"

"What if he doesn't?" Cass asked, "If he survived this, then we might gain a great asset to our team."

Hours ticked by until finally the last of the ice melted. "Looks like a no go," Lee frowned as he poked the body, "this guy is dead as a doornail."

"Give it a minute," Cass grumbled, "it's been almost a hundred years."

The man in the casket began to cough violently. Sun and Lee jumped back in fright. Cass was startled but realized what was happening, "He's drowning you idiots!" She rushed over to him and attempted to sit him up. "Help me!" Her two friends ran over to assist her and together they sat him up and tried to help him cough up the water.

The uniform said it all. The man they had defrosted was definitely Captain America. Once he had stopped coughing, he turned to the trio. "Who are you?" Glancing around the room, he frowned, "Am I dead?"

"Not quite," Cass said slowly.

"Who are you?" He asked again, "Is this a Nazi torture chamber? Have I been captured?"

"What's a Nazi?" Sun, the youngest of the group, asked.

Captain America sighed in slight relief, "if she doesn't know what a Nazi is, then Hitler must be gone."

"Who's Hitler?" Sun asked, this time with frustration.

"If she doesn't know who Hitler is…" He sat in thought for a few minutes before he spoke again, "Where exactly am I?"

"Well," Lee looked to Cass, "I think our resident expert should tell you."

"You're really Captain America aren't you?" She asked in awe, "Steve Rogers right?"

"Shh!" Captain America put a hand over her mouth, "you never know who's listening. Where's Bucky?"

She moved his hand away, "Cap," this time, Cass's expression was a sad one, "the war ended almost a hundred years ago. There was another war about twenty years ago that almost wiped out the entire human race. Sun doesn't know anything about Hitler or Nazi's because she was four when everything was destroyed."

Lee chipped in, "yeah Cass is the only one who's had any real formal schooling. She's the oldest of us, so she's the only one who really remembers life before hell."

"What exactly happened?" He narrowed his eyes and took a good look at the group in front of him. He wasn't quite sure what to make of them. They seemed like good kids, but there was harshness about them that he couldn't figure out.

Cass looked down at the ground. How was she supposed to tell World War Two's greatest hero that everything he fought for was gone?

"That bad?" Steve asked.

"It's a long story," Lee spoke up, "It started in the Middle East and got uglier as time passed. What started as a conflict between us and them ended up getting the whole world involved."

"World War Three." Cass said solemnly.

"I'm surprised we're still alive," Sun admitted, "and not mutated."

"Mutated?"

"Nuclear winter," Lee added, "although, it's really not as bad as people thought it would be. There's still a lot of radiation going on, but not on the level everyone was expecting."

Cass broke in again, "Look, I'd love to explain everything, but we need to get back to the group. We could really use you on our team Cap. It would restore hope to our people if they knew you were on our side."

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Steve asked, "What if you're the bad guys?"

Sun looked around at the dead bodies, "Well, I don't know how we can prove it to you, but if you'd like to rot here with your friends, you're _more_ than welcome to."

"You have a point there," he looked around the room. Even if he didn't know what side they were on, they _were _offering him a ticket out of isolation.

With little assistance, Steve stood up and started following the group. He didn't say much of anything as they led him out of the building and towards their current campsite.

After a long silence, Cass finally spoke, "I don't think that building would be good for us, but we should go back and raid it for supplies when we get the chance."

"What if Aidan and Luke didn't find anything?" Sun asked, "We can't just sit in that makeshift home forever. They'll find us."

"We'll just have to wait until Aidan and Luke get back," Cass stated, "But that S.H.I.E.L.D building just seemed too dangerous, especially with Chris and Nik."

"It would take too long to clean it up," Lee added, "it's not safe with all that stuff everywhere and we only looked at that one area. How many more dead bodies are we going to run into next time? I'm with Cass, we should raid it for supplies, but we should find our new home elsewhere."

"Could someone please explain something to me?" Steve asked, "I feel like I've missed the first half of a news reel."

Lee raised an eyebrow, "What?"

Cass laughed, "Didn't you watch _any _TV growing up? News reels were the things they used to play in the theaters _way _back in the day. If you watched any movie about any type of war, there's always some scene where someone is in the theater watching one of them."

"Not all of us were old enough to remember all that," Sun reminded her, "I was still watching 'Care Bears' when everything happened."

"Besides," Lee stated, "_most _little girls were playing with dolls, not watching 'Rocketeer'."

"As fun as this conversation is," Steve cut in, "could someone please answer my question?"

"Okay," Cass sighed, "It's a long story and it isn't pretty. We were all kids when it happened. Basically, there was this conflict in the Middle East. Like Lee said earlier, the longer it dragged on, the uglier it got. More people got involved and eventually the war wasn't just about the Middle East anymore. It turned on us and instead of flying out there to fight, the fight was coming here."

"You mean they actually tried to invade America?" Steve asked in disbelief.

"Tried," Cass said, "and almost succeeded. It was almost like the whole world was against us. During the last battle, they wiped out our military and most of our super-heroes. We were all taken to a refugee camp where we started to rebuild. We've run into others that have tried the same thing, but there's a new threat that keeps us moving."

"What's the new threat?" Steve asked.

"We're not exactly sure," Sun answered, "All we know is what we hear from rumors. Apparently, someone is trying to take over the world. Their soldiers are keeping us from being able to stay put. It seems that everywhere we go, they run us out."

"If most of the human race has been wiped out, where are they getting these soldiers?"

"That's the weird part," Cass shrugged, "they're robots. I mean, we don't have anything left, so I don't know where they got the technology. The only thing I can think of is that they came from somewhere overseas."

"So you think that maybe somewhere over there wasn't hit as hard?" Steve rubbed his temples, "I don't understand how this could happen."

"You've missed out on almost a hundred years," Lee explained, "Life is…different. Girls ask guys out and before this all happened, gas was up to five dollars a gallon."

"Sounds horrible." Steve laughed.

"Stop being an ass Lee," Cass scolded. She looked back at Steve, "it's worse than he's making it sound. Lee thinks he's a comedian."

When the group returned to the campsite, people started to gather around them. Cass quickly ushered them away, telling them she would answer their questions later. Steve gave her a questioning look, "Why didn't you just tell them about me?"

"You're kind of a mess," She stated, "I'd rather wait until Aidan and Luke get back anyway." Looking over at Lee, she smiled, "You get to find him some new clothes. This red, white and blue getup is going to make us stick out more than we already do."

"Cass!" a young girl ran up to the group and hugged Cass's leg, "I missed you!"

"Nik!" another young girl ran up to the group, "I told you not to do that!"

"Hi Nik," Cass smiled, "Hi Chris."

Nik looked up and smiled at Cass, then she looked over at Steve. "Who's he?" She asked, "I think he's cute. Will you marry me Mister?"

"Knock it off Nik!" Chris made a face at the younger girl, "No one wants to marry you!"

Steve tried not to laugh, instead he knelt down next to Nik, who was on the verge of tears, "I'm sure there's someone who wants to marry you. And I'm sure he's going to be way better looking than me too."

Nik smiled again, "Nuh-uh. You're hot!"

"Okay girls," Cass scolded, "Let's go." She took both girls by the hand and led them to a tent.

Steve let out a laugh, "cute kids. Are they hers?"

"No," Sun frowned, "They're Wolverine's babies."

"Who?"

"He was one of the super-heroes," she explained, "he died a few years ago."

"Or so we think," Lee added, "he went out with Ben Grimm, another one of our supers. Neither one of them came back."

"Wow." Steve took a look around the camp. Most people were staring at him from their tents, "So what makes you think I'll be any help?"

"Let's not worry about that now," Lee stated, "Right now, let's see if we have any clothes for you. We raided a half-demolished Wal-Mart last week, so there might be something around here."

"See ya later Cap." Sun waved and let out a shy smile before turning and running towards her tent.

"Is she okay?" Steve asked once she disappeared inside the tent, "She's kind of off and on. Sarcastic and outgoing one minute, shy the next."

"That's just Sun for you," Lee shrugged, "I think maybe she feels a little guilty. She's the only one who wanted to keep you frozen."


	3. Chapter Two: A Friend In Sun

**A/N: Okay here we go! Our first brief look at our VILLAIN. I'm fairly sure you guys can take a few educated guesses. So, I was thinking, Captain America left without his shield. What the HECK can I do with that? I've got a few plans and that lovely shield is going to come into play. So, recap. Our boy defrosted, almost drowned and in the rush and excitement of things wasn't even able to clear his head long enough to remember he had a shield with him!**

** Other than that, Steve is trying to catch up on a hundred years of history. Hope you enjoy:) (P.S. This spellchecker is CRAZY. It's trying to replace "wasn't" with "Warren"???)**

A fuzzy picture appeared on the screen. After a few knocks on the side, it cleared a little, but was still snowy. "Blast this nuclear winter," a man growled, "it took far too long to rebuild and it's still not right."

"Stop!" he shouted as the camera panned the landscape, "That building. It looks like an old S.H.I.E.L.D base. Survey the area, make sure you're alone. I want to see what's in that building."

The man watched as the camera moved around the area. Finally making its way into the building, he noticed that someone had been there before him. "That door," he stated, "someone broke into it. Find out what's in there!"

Watching as the scout moved down into the bomb shelter, he grinned, "get a closer look at that coffin. This could be what I've been searching for." When the camera moved closer, he noticed the coffin was empty. "Dammit!" His fist hit the desk. A few seconds later, he noticed something else, "Wait! Could it be? The Mighty Captain America left without his shield? Bring it to me." With that, the transmission went dead.

* * *

After a long day of touring the camp and catching up on almost a hundred years with Cass, Steve felt as if a truck had hit him. The last thing he remembered was blowing up. Believing that he'd been asleep for so long was a bit of a struggle. He sat down on a log next to a small fire.

"Hi Cap." Sun walked up and sat down on the log across from him.

Steve smiled, "Hi…um…"

"Sun."

"Hi Sun. You can call me Steve. It's not like you're blowing my cover or anything."

"Okay," she said, "Steve."

They both shared a laugh and then he spoke up again, "So, what's on your mind?"

"I came here to ask you the same thing," she shrugged, "it can't be easy. I mean, you were a World War Two hero one minute and now you're here and you have almost a hundred years to soak up. Cass didn't overwhelm you did she?"

"Nah," he waved it off, "she couldn't just let me walk into this whole thing blind. It's just hard to believe the country I fought so hard to protect is gone."

"You weren't very old were you?"

"Nope."

"How old are you?"

Steve laughed, "I don't know, what year is it?"

Sun rolled her eyes and grinned, "You know what I mean."

After thinking for a moment, he frowned, "I…don't know exactly. A lot of my memories are still fresh in my mind, but some things are fuzzy."

"Your birthday is fuzzy?"

"No." He stated, "I was born July fourth, nineteen seventeen. But…I don't know…" he wrinkled his nose, "I can't remember the date…I'm twenty something. It was towards the end of the war…"

Sun smiled, "it's okay, I don't even know what the date is today. You're probably about Cass' age. Maybe a little younger. Believe me; she'll hold that over your head."

He returned the smile, "What do you mean by that?"

"Don't get me wrong, Cass is a great leader, but she loves being in charge." Sun sighed, "Whenever someone else tries to jump in, she reminds them that she's older and she ran with the best of them and they trained her for this."

"But there are others in the camp," Steve pointed to a bunch of tents, "If you guys were the youngest…"

"Most of these people were rescued from bomb shelters and stuff like that. When Wolverine and Ben disappeared, they looked to Cass because she was the one who always stepped up to the plate."

"I guess this whole situation forced you guys to grow up fast." Steve mused.

"I guess we're not so different," Sun said.

"How so?"

"One of the ladies in the camp told me how she felt really bad for us, growing up in such difficult times. She said that when she was my age, she was still having the time of her life. They didn't really have to worry about stuff like this." She frowned, "Steve, all my dolls were destroyed. I stopped playing when I was four years old. Chris and Nik don't even know what a doll is."

"And that's like me?"

"Well, you're not much older than I am. Sure, you probably had a happy childhood and all that stuff, but at a young age, you were tossed into a war."

"I volunteered." He reminded her.

"But still," she said, "you were young, and war is gruesome. It's the kind of thing you don't forget."

"It's the kind of thing that makes you grow up fast." He nodded, "You're right, we're not so different."

"So now what?" She asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're here. Are you staying?"

"I have nowhere else to go." He frowned, "Cass seems to think I can be of some assistance and I think she's right."

"You do?"

He nodded, "yeah. She brought me up to speed on a lot of what's been going on and what she'd like to see happen. I really think I can help with that."

"What was it like?" She asked.

"I'm sorry?"

"Life," she stated, "Before all this crap. You got to grow up in a world where you didn't have to worry about anything."

"It wasn't all fun and games. True, I was too young to remember anything about World War One, but I lived through the Great Depression. Then I ended up going to war in the forties."

"Okay," she sighed, "Forget all that. You had a childhood. You had parents. You had a roof over your head."

"How do you know?" He laughed.

"Maybe I don't know." She frowned.

"Even though the times were rough," he smiled, "I had a pretty fun childhood."

"What did you do?"

"We had fun." When she gave him a confused look, he continued, "I had a couple friends in the neighborhood I used to hang out with. We used to run around and play cops and robbers."

"What's that?" she raised an eyebrow.

"It's kind of like tag," he tried to explain, "someone is the cop and everyone else is a robber. The cop tries to catch the robbers."

"That's fun?" she asked.

"I guess it's kind of hard to just explain it," he frowned, "But it really was fun. Being a kid during tough times meant that you never truly realized the danger of the situation. My friends and I never really noticed that we didn't have everything. All we knew that it was a hell of a lot of fun to run around outside."

"Trust me, running isn't fun." She sighed, "I've been running almost my whole life."

"Did you know I fell in love for the first time while I was outside?" He asked, trying to change the subject.

"You did?" She laughed, "What was it like?"

"It hurt," he grinned, "I was five and there was this girl that lived nearby. I thought she was cute, so one day, when we were playing tag; I snuck up on her and kissed her. She didn't really like that too much so she punched me."

"Ouch."

"I wasn't really the toughest kid out there. She knocked out a tooth and I had a swollen lip for awhile."

"Was it worth it?" Sun asked.

"At the time? Yeah. In retrospect, it wasn't the best idea. Her big brother could punch a lot harder than she could."

"Are you lying?" She rolled her eyes and smiled.

"True story," He assured her, "Never hit on a girl who's got a big older brother."

"Did you ever think of her after that?"

His smile faded into a frown again, "I did. She moved away a couple years later and I always wondered what happened to her. I guess it doesn't matter now does it? Even if she was alive…or grew up and had a family…it's all gone now. All my family…my friends…it's all gone. In a few more years, no one's even going to know what America was like, what it stood for."

"Kind of makes you want to go extinct?"

"No." He said quietly, "I don't want to go extinct."

"Sometimes, I wish I had died in the initial attack." She confessed, "Death seems so much easier than living a life in Hell."

"You can't think like that," he told her, "once you lose hope, you've lost everything."

"I never had anything to hope for." She stood up and walked away.

**I hope you enjoyed this episode! I have more on the way, but it's still being beta'd. For those who haven't read any of my stories, I always put some trivia at the beginning or the end of the chapter if I have some. In this chapter, Steve finds a friend in Sun. Originally, Sun wasn't going to be a main character at all and Cap was actually going to more closely relate to Cass and Lee. Sun just seemed to jump off the page when I wrote this little conversation and now things have changed drastically. You'll see why in the next few chapters. (No, it's nothing mushy. Sorry!)**


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